I managed to get the book up and online at 11.30pm my time, which is probably not the best time to announce to the world- hey! My book! Since most of the people in my world were asleep. But now comes the fun part of telling loads of people about it. I have the link above, I have friends on Twitter (waves to friends on twitter- re-tweet me!), sig file on email.

Also, this Thursday I am going to be featured on this blog :

Claire is having a week of promoting indie authors. I chose Thursday, I like Thursdays. There is also going to be a give-away of my book. 2 lucky people will win a free copy! I would like to say signed, but I don’t know how to do that.

Although, if I sign something, with a personal message, and add it as a page to the document….

They say you can edit a book forever. I received some edits from a friend after my last blog announcement saying it is about to be launched. They were good edits, meaty edits, the kind of edits which needs a load of brain power to compute. I started going through them, but by the time publication date came around, I hadn’t gone through them all. And then Smashwords would not let me publish. So, all day Sunday and Monday I was going through the edits and managed to work through them all. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy with the book before hand. I am just more happy now.

And the next time I read the book and decide that it could be EVEN BETTER…. they say you can edit a book forever…

It is a strange feeling to publish a book. There is something out there which I can no longer touch. Well, of course when I release the 10 year anniversary edition with extra scenes and DVD commentary, but right now, the book that is out there, is it. I have novels sitting on my computer that I can go back to and tweak here and there. But The Girl From Out of Town? Nope, it is there, it is out on the internet. I must now let it go to be its own thing, to be loved or hated by millions.

I have been receiving positive reviews this week. Two people posted reviews in Smashwords, I received a comment from a friend through email, which was funny and honest:

“I will admit to starting to read the book out of ‘politeness’ (I said I would, so I was) and I really got into it. Don’t tell me that I have to wait for the rest (I was intolerable when the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out – I had to wait a *whole* year to see the next instalment!!! Now the Hobbit looks like it is going to do the same thing – Agggggg!!!!)

You should be really proud of your book – It is definitely publishable material (in my humble opinion!). Try to remember us little people when you get famous 😉“

And I was chatting to my old university and writing friend, online, about the book. She is notorious for wielding the red pen with abandon on my work. And while she says there are some niggles still there for her (it wouldn’t be her if it she told me it was utterly perfect), she was extremely happy with what I produced from the original. It read clearer, motivations for characters were clearer and stronger.

However we did get into a discussion as to if my story was true steampunk or not. I say it is magical steampunk, but when it comes to categorising, that doesn’t fit too well. ‘TRUE’ steampunk…. is it Victoriana? Gentlemen in suits with top hats and ray guns, riding steam-powered machinery, with their ladies by their side, silken gloves, corsets and ray guns as well? Or is it the wild west frontier, of an alternate history, with automaton horses, ankle length coats, cowboy hats and goggles and six shooters with dials and gauges stuck on the side?

I have mentioned before that I like the genre of steam punk as it is new and emerging and can encompass so many different things. And yet, it seems those differences which makes other people claim- no that is not steam punk.

My friend and I settled on the term magitech. I like that word. It tells you there’s magic and there’s technology and somehow they are linked. However, it’s not a term people would go searching for, and hence that may impact on sales. So while I agree my book could lean towards this new word, I have labelled it ‘steampunk’ because that is what people will search for.

I do not think this is me selling out. It is going to be hard enough to point people in the direction of my book when it goes on sale. I don’t want to further hamper those efforts by calling it something that not many people have heard of before. Now, when I become popular and well known and people begin to buy my books because of my name, then I will have no problem saying it is colourist theory futuristic interior design retro punk. A new genre! As long as it is a strong story no one will really care what genre I call it. They will be searching for my NAME, not a genre.

Case in point. ‘Perdido Street Station‘. When I first encountered this book I did not know what steampunk was, not really. I had heard rumours. But I was told this book was really good steampunk. So I read a book which had artificial intelligent junkyard robots, remade prisoners blended with machinery, often in twisted and horrible ways. I read a story about weird and wonderful creatures, an insect-headed woman having a perfectly normal relationship with a human. A blend of magic and technology. And I loved it.

And then I find out that it is not ‘true’ steampunk because it doesn’t have a Victorian feel to it, or is not set in the new west. There is a lot of internet rage over this, and it is rage I am going to avoid. I have heard this book described as ‘urban-gothic’, ‘dark urban fantasy’, ‘weird fiction’ and ‘science-fantasy’. So which box of genres does it go? Or has it created its own new box?

I know that genres were originally invented so book stores knew where on the shelf to place their books, and how to point customers to them. And this idea of genre has become a part of us over the years. Think of this scene- a man about to go to work, is in a diner having coffee and pan cakes. He has been flirting with the waitress for a few weeks now. She knows it too, and she thinks he is cute. This time as she hands him the bill, she puts her number on the ticket and gives it a kiss, leaving lip stick marks. So, this is a romance story, yes? Boy meets girl and romance ensues? It would go there on the shelf with other romance novels.

The next scene shows the man stepping into a mining vessel and launching out to mine the ice rings of a gas giant planet in a far away in a binary star system on the edge of human settled space. Now it is science fiction, and goes on another shelf. Even if this mining ice thing is a just a small part of the story, and it focuses on the building relationship between these two people and the trials and tribulations they have, this book is now science fiction. Because it has space ships.

I accept the need for genres. It gives the book an anchor, a starting point from which to grow. When I started to write ‘The Girl From Out of Town’ I said to myself that I wanted to write a steampunk novel. And while I stuck to some conventions- the mechanical golems are powered by steam, there are sky ships which also have steam engines to power jets, the story which grew naturally, had dragons in it. It had magic in it. It was set in my own created world. It had dimensional travel and demons in it. And yet I still consider it steampunk, although now I may be leaning towards magitech.

But Steampunk works for now. People can search for it and go from there. It is a good STORY, which is what it should be first and foremost.

I has been a full-on week for me. Novel work, copy writing work, an education about what happens when a client isn’t happy. All good stuff really.

I finished Act 2 re-write this week. It felt more like a first draft, maybe version 1.2, rather than a full version 2.0. Some tweaks to the plot and story in Act 1 flowed through to Act 2. My main characters (Oh! I can name them now! You all have downloaded Act 1, so you know who I am talking about!), Navarr and Mizzell no longer pay their way on board and are chummy with everyone. As you know ;), they fell on to the ship, well, you don’t know that, but hey, it isn’t such a huge spoiler. So, they are not automatically chummy with the crew. But, through their actions, particularly Navarr, they become friends with a few of them.

This is important since it is Navarr’s journey I need to focus on. It is his development as a character, going from meek little office boy to a man of the world, with a woman! Just a little bit of cheese cake there.

Another piece of advice I followed was not introducing so many characters. I know who all the weird and wonderful characters are, I invented them, I found imagery to best represent them, I wrote down some details for them, all for me. So I know them all. But as a reader, another name can over load the brain. Hard to keep track of the main story elements if you need to remember all those names. I know that when I read epic fantasies, such as Feist’s Magician, and the Game of Thrones, having to reference that glossary of names at the back, takes me OUT of the story.

So it was good to get Act 2 in the bag, for a brief while at least. I will get it back in a week with ‘suggestions’, I know it. It also gives me a good idea on the time line. I might have to push the full release date back a bit, but this is okay. I have a plan and there is a time critical element that I cannot control. And yes, I am being very vague here. 🙂

The Creative Penn released a blog post back on the 4th of March- The 7 Worst Mistakes of Indie Authors and How to Fix Them. I am keeping a keen eye on anything which talks about indie authors of late. A friend of mine, Catherine Gracey, blogged about how our friend Scarlett and myself, have been inspiring her on her journey of being an author – blog poster here. It is fantastic to know I am inspiring a fellow writer to rethink her journey. I am finding that is it a very supportive group of people I am getting involved with. Catherine and Scarlett are there to bounce ideas off, and to edit. I throw thoughts at Sarah Billington who is much farther down this indie publishing route than all of us, and yet is quite open and friendly for chats. I throw shout outs to these people where I can, and in return they share the love back. It is great.

So, back to the Creative Penn. They say it is best to learn from the mistakes of others, so I read this article with a keen eye to my own progress. I will address all seven items in this list for you all.

1. Know myself? What am I doing? Why am I doing this? I consider writing to be my best talent. It is what I am best at. Now, I can be great at customer service or communication or knowing the rules of basketball and blowing my whistle, but writing is something I enjoy and something I am good at. It is why after so many years I have leapt before I looked into the world of freelance copy writing. It is also why I am self-publishing a novel. I have said for a long time that I wanted to be a published author. I have said for a long time that – I will just re-write this and then send it off for publication, without actually doing anything with it. Hello, I have a 5 book epic sci fi series sitting there wanting love… So, for number 1? I am doing it, not to make money, but to get it out there. So many people want to read my work, so I want them to read it too. I am also really enjoying taking my writing seriously. Marketing myself, getting an ISBN, a cover artist, real editing from friends. I can make some pocket money off it, sure, but the whole process is fun and exciting for me.

2. Being a writer, being involved with NANOWRIMO, I know professional editors. And, I have asked that they don’t be nice to me because we’re friends. I have even offered payment. Of course there have been ‘mates rates’, but it is legitimate. It feels good to say- I had a meeting with my editor today. It is also good to get a fresh set of eyes on the manuscript.

3. As I have shown you all in earlier blogs, Scarlett Rugers designs has done a fantastic job in designing my book cover and additional web banner advertising. Another sign I am taking this seriously. I could have scoured free photo sites and mocked something up, but I doubt I could have achieved anything like what Scarlett has.

4. This is why I am only doing e-publishing first off. It is cheaper for me and I don’t have to have a pile of books in storage waiting for sales. I would love to have books, in hand, which I could sell and sign and give to people. It is something I will consider, but yes, did not chose the print then sell path purely for this reason.

5. The cover design was part of a Nanowrimo promotion. Smashwords is free, the editing I can pay for in chocolate. I am definitely all over number 5.

6. My marketing for the free Act 1 release included emailing my friends, flooding facebook, to my friends and asking them to tell their friends. Posting on my blog and twitter, and again, getting my friends to re-tweet. A web banner on the bottom of my email and sticking the web banners wherever I could. Very little marketing for the free download.

7. Well, I am focused on this one book, currently, because it is the current book I am writing. I already have book titles for the other two books in the series, and I have a vague story arc, so there will be a trilogy. Hoping 2nd book in the same year, but possibly 1 book a year. It depends how much I can cram into my life and earn money.

And now I would like to leave you with a quote from a friend who read my book. I like it. It is honest and positive and amusing:

“I will admit to starting to read the book out of ‘politeness’ (I said I would, so I was) and I really got into it. Don’t tell me that I have to wait for the rest (I was intolerable when the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out – I had to wait a *whole* year to see the next instalment!!! Now the Hobbit looks like it is going to do the same thing – Agggggg!!!!)

You should be really proud of your book – It is definitely publishable material (in my humble opinion!). Try to remember us little people when you get famous 😉“

Good morning! Didn’t get to my blog during the week. I actually had a busy week. This is both good and bad for me. Busy in that it was worky work writing, bad because I have been craving getting my teeth into my novel.

Monday I went and met with a talent agency. I thought to fill in the time between freelance gigs with some TV and Film extra work. But they wanted a large sum of money to register me with no guarantee of work. While I like the idea of being an extra, I currently don’t have wads of cash to throw around. Later perhaps.

Tuesday was meetings with people. I have joined a group of business people who help each other with business related problems. I know mine is currently getting myself out there to get business, but I know my problem and I am currently working my way through some solutions, so I am just sitting and helping others for the moment.

That meeting lead on to another meeting with an awesome business coach. We chatted for well over an hour on some strategies for me and the business of writing. I never really thought business or life coaches would be my thing. I have some very good people in my life to help me and tell me off when I am being silly. But business coaches? A very cool idea in my opinion.

Wednesday was a three-hour meeting with a graphic designer. A guy who has been in the business for over thirty years? He is the first person from my networking group who has said to me that my writing is not up to standard. I was taken a back, and hurt, of course. It may be copy writing but it is something I create. It’s a natural reaction to think- you don’t like it? OH NO! But, he went on to say what he didn’t like, how the start of some things I wrote did not grab the reader, did not pull the customer in with WOW AWESOME copy. The bulk of the work was good, it’s just the start was not punchy enough. He is kindly going to help me improve myself as a copy writer in business. I like this, I appreciate him giving me the time to semi-mentor me? But I can also see he is building me up to work for him as well. He wants to improve me for his own ends as well. I don’t mind. I am humble enough to want to improve myself and admit that, while I am a good writer, the business side of things, may need some beating of panels.

Thursday rolled around with BNI and meeting with a client for web work. This continued into Friday as well, with the weekly BNI newsletter to produce. So, very little time to squeeze in novel writing.

But, being the stubborn person I am, squeeze it in I did. An hour here, a few minutes there. I have written past the pit fights, so I am near the end of Act 2. I had a dilemma with the pit fights. I was in a head space where I just wanted to kill someone, in the books I mean. I thought – wouldn’t it be shocking and cool if the fights were to the death. That would give an added sense of tension when one of the characters chooses to fight in order to save my main characters. But upon speaking with my editors, they asked me – what benefit to the story would it be? What would turning the fights into death matched add to the story? I couldn’t really answer that. And then someone else said they would not want to read a book where women were fighting and killing each other. So I let it sit for a day and came back in a better head space, and left the fighting to submission, not to the death.

And just to finish up, before I start my weekend. I cracked 200+ downloads for the free Act 1 on Smashwords this week. That is so cool. I am planning, with others, how to market the full book when it comes time for release. And to see 200 downloads with very little marketing is so encouraging. I have had no feedback though. No one has left a review, or told me if they like it or not. I hope they’re not just being nice…. 😉

What a week! The day that I was supposed to launch Act 1 of my book, and Smashwords fell down. I have been checking their Site Update blog every day, sometimes every hour, but the file validation and conversion program- Meatgrinder, is still off-line. I have been trying every day to get my book up, but to no avail.

It feels like such an anti-climax. I busted a hump last weekend editing, re-writing, butting heads with my editor. And then Tuesday morning… nothing! All week… nothing!

I must say, the marketing campaign I implemented had a lot of people asking me where my book was. I visited my old workplace and they all asked how it was going and when they could read it. My old team leader said she was going to email me on Tuesday to ask how it was going, but thought, with all the excitement I was going through, to perhaps leave off for a day or two. Heh, I like the sentiment, but little did she know…

Copy Writing trundles along well. Two people would like me to write newsletters for them. Which is good, since a job popped up online which had a lot of newsletter components involved. So I applied. There’s a potential informercial magazine concept coming up which would involve interviews and research and writing. It has been a while since I interviewed people. Fun working out the right questions to ask, and transcribing and all that. I do find some mundane things fun, don’t I?

Ah well. time for the weekend. I will most definitely tell the WORLD when my book is ready for you all to have a look at and give me awesome feedback!

A little dramatic, I know, but it is kind of how I am feeling. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, February 14th. The date that I proclaimed I would release my debut novel, The Girl From Out of Townon to an unsuspecting world. Well, if you were reading this blog you might have suspected something.

That plan changed, and I offered a free preview, Act 1, to grab readers who want to know the rest of the story. Still to be released on February 14th. This nearly did not come to pass. I gave one of my editors permission to go balls’n’all nasty on my manuscript. I thought – it’s not THAT bad. I received something to the contrary back from her.

Now, admittedly this was an email conversation, and upon actually talking the news wasn’t all THAT bad. She wanted MORE description. I was sitting in the school of an economics of writing. Write the scene in as few words as possible to get the story across. But she wanted more, more description of the environment. I am creating a rich and colourful world, so I should show the world. And some of the scenes had no direction, there were a lot of names no one would remember, things like that.

This left me deflated on Sunday. But, we came to a compromise. I want to get something out as a free preview. I have added some more colour and depth, I have removed names that are irrelevant, my poor lead character only has 3 friends now, not 4. I removed an entire plot hook since even I saw it was kind of dumb.

And so now I sit, late afternoon, February 13th. I have yet to format to Smashword’s specifications. I must go out and run around a basketball court now. And then come home and figure it out. Should be easy, right?

But, I am sitting here, and I am paranoid scared and proud. I am paranoid people are going to read it and find spelling errors. Words which are spelled correctly but are the wrong word for that place, and they will think- what a hack. Couldn’t get that edited out? I am waiting for me to find something I left in which could have been better! And then I should re-write it and re-publish it and tell everyone- hey! I changed 5 words! Download the new version!

I am scared because I have never done this before. I have let people read my work before, but I knew them. This is the internet we are talking about now. There are far more people out there I don’t know, than I do. There is a possibility they wont like what I have written. I am both okay with this and not okay with this. A) Okay with is because not everyone likes everything. People are entitled to their opinion, and I know, in myself, that it’s a good story. I enjoyed writing the story, I love the characters and the world I have created. So in myself, I like it. However B) because I like it so much, I want everyone else to like it as well. And if they don’t, and if they throw mud at me, that might hurt. That would give my inside voices ammunition to use against me.

And I am proud because this is a MASSIVE step along that journey I started ages ago. I started this blog to chart my journey as a writer, and this here is a massive step along the way. I announced a date and, while I had to compromise along the way, I am sticking to that date. That is something I am proud of.

Hello and welcome to 2012. The Mayans think the world is going to end this year. I don’t believe it, however we’re going to have one hell of a party on that night.

So, New Year means resolutions, right? Well, I personally do not make NYR’s. Back in my more emo-poetic days I would say that I didn’t want to make promises to myself that I would only break. Now it is more like, I would rather set goals for myself, achieve them or excel them, but not feel guilty about not making them.

So, my goals for the new year? Get my Steam Punk book- A Girl From Out of Town out there and published on Smashwords. I have announced the date as Valentines Day, and I do intend to stick to that date. I am waiting to hear from 5 Beta Readers who told me they could read the book and give me feedback by the end of the first week in January. I know 2 of them have read or are reading the book. The other 3, I don’t know. Waiting on them to get back to me with independent feedback bugs me a little. But I will talk on that later. No, actually I will talk on that now.

Another goal I am implementing this year is to create more action MYSELF, rather than relying on others. While I cannot do everything myself, and I do like to support and use my networks, last year there was a lot of waiting for someone else to get stuff done, often weeks later than it should have taken, before I could take a step forward. While I can understand and accept that in some cases the people were very busy, one friend in particular, it was still aggravating not being able to promote me, because I had to rely on others.

So, this year I am going to try and do a lot myself. I have DL flyers promoting me. So now I am going to go around the neighbourhood, introduce myself as a copy writer, offer them the $100 deal, and ask that they have my flyers on their counter in case someone rocks up and might need me. I am going to get the cover for my novel, in electronic colourful wonderful format and promote theout of myself. I will see what I need for a banner ad on forums. I will bribe friends with chocolate, tweet and retweet and again, offer chocolate. I will suggest more ways people can use me as a copy writer, and how it is a good idea.

I opened the bottle of Moet which my friends from my last job gave me on New Years Eve at midnight. They said to open it when I got a new job. I figure 2012 is going to be my new job. It is going to be the year that my freelance career becomes viable. That my novel is published and makes some money. That I find some good part-time or temp work to pay the bills and relieve some of that stress. I am going to work, at what I want this year.

I will keep this updated to chart the path of my writing journey. I will keep my twitter feed going and my Facebook page updated. All part of the joy of an online platform.

These are truths. Absolute writing truths. Sometimes I wish I could share these with clients, but you need to put that confident face on, that you know what you are doing, and that you are happy with your work on. Even if you’re not. Even if you’re worried that they might think- this is crap, who is this guy? I could have written this, why am I paying him so much for this pile of turd? I will put the poker face on when my novel is up for sale. While friends and hopefully people I don’t know, say- awesome book! Bring on the next one! I will sit there and go- that could have been better, oh crap I left that in. Its really not my best work….

Writing is such a personal thing. It comes from within the creator, from within me. Be it the creative romps of novel-writing, or the ordered copy writing for a client, it is all something created by me, by the writer. For me, there is always that higher level for potential of failure. It’s not like a regular job of A + B = product at $X, thank you come again. So each time I produce copy for a client and hand it over, it is me, in that piece. It is a part of me that could be rejected as- this is not what we were looking for. And for me, to continually put myself under the spot light, to repeatedly put my writing core on the chopping block, is a scary scary thing. I dont think even the most experienced writer is ever fully immune to the fear. But this is another thing this year I am going to, not conquer, but to recognise and face and accept.

Every time I write, every time I give someone a piece of my work, I am afraid and scared of their reaction. But that is okay. Face my fears and do it anyway.

2012 is going to be huge, massive, and awesome. And then its going to end with a huge party.

Through the Writers Beware Facebook group, I discovered this article in the Huffington Post- Are eBooks Too Cheap?

I have yet to determine the pricing of my pending eBook, so this makes excellent reading. While I can see the sense in having a book cost only 99 cents, I know the time and effort I put into this work, and feel that low price would not to me justice, or the book justice. It would cheapen the book. It may widen my readership, but at what cost?

I will read more about this in the coming weeks the closer my launch date becomes.

Traveling home from work yesterday, reading the free newspaper commuters read, I came across a story where scientists have discovered the ‘werewolf gene‘. It has been a scientific fact for a long time, people who have excessive facial or body hair. But now they have found the werewolf gene!

This excited me because now, for me, werewolves fit a certain kind of logic which I appreciate. When creating worlds, magic, ships which fly through the stars, there needs to be a logic, even if it is your own logic. You need to understand the world you have created, otherwise it will not make sense to you, and your readers will see this.

The magic in my steam punk world is based on sigil magic, the power of the written word, of symbols. Well, most of it. I have always believed sorcerers had magic in the blood. Hmm, maybe the blood cells could be covered in sigils at a tiny microscopic level. . . anyway. There is a logic, to me, for my magic system. Functional magic, alchemy, it all has a logic to me.

And now, werewolves have come into my logic. Don’t get me wrong, I love the mystical and supernatural about werewolves. Something controlled by lunar cycles, the irresistible urge of nature. I have grown up reading high fantasy and science fiction. So having a creature turn hairy and howl at the sight of a full moon is fantastic and I like it. It’s just now there can be an actually truth behind the werewolf, a logic.

Kind of related to this, and my need of logic, is something I have been thinking about this week. Dragons. In my steam punk world they exist. I am now thinking about scale. I have dracon, or draca, not sure what to call them yet. Tiny dragons, the size of your forearm perhaps. Skittery little creatures that can be domesticated, if you feed them well. Great for keep the local rat population under control. But there are also the larger dragons. But how large do I want them? Large enough to ride? Massive and imposing? Or like a large cat or whale shark?

This question has become important to me in the sense of what can you do with a dragon’s body? I have uses for them. Dragon scale shavings in potions and anti-dragon ammunition; dragon-proof clothing. Meat? Ivory trophies? All of which I plan on including. But, if the dragon is too large, does that mean hunting and killing one provides you with a massive bounty? Sure, high risk, high reward. But I plan on some of my characters having dragon related paraphernalia. DId they get it themselves? And if so, why are they all not fabulously wealthy?

And if the dragons are large beasts of magnificence, are there few of them? An old ancient race with dwindling numbers? Then that makes me sad killing one for dragon meat and dragon leather.

I am leaning towards the size of a large cat. That fits the mould of a hunter, for me. A large hunter at the top of the food chain, yet still within the realms of being hunted. And if you manage to kill one, you get some dragon scale, claws, meat etc, but not enough to make you super wealthy.

This is something which I am enjoying about my current world building project. I would never have bothered to think about the size of a dragon, or what things could be harvested from a dead dragon’s body. But I like the logic of an aerial hunter that is fast quick and vicious, yet intelligent and wise. Plus, it lends itself nicely to the smaller dragon kind, much like domesticated cats.

As an addendum to this, rather large post, I believe I mentioned in previous blog posts about my love for electronic publishing. Call me slow to realise, or LTTP (Late To The Party), but I have recently discovered Smashwords. I am looking at stringing together some short stories and posting it on there. I will blog about this in future, the dilemma of free books to garner an audience, or setting a price for the books to obtain READERS, not just those who grab free stuff for reading later if they feel like it.

I have also mentioned previously on my love of werewolves, and those who may be real, it seems finding a werewolf gene, and Smashwords, caused some delightful symmetry. Lunar Nights. I don’t have an e-reader yet, so I am not going to buy this now, but I like how this werewolf has popped out of her blog and into Smashwords.